Count me out of 2019 presidential race, says Jonathan

By Olaolu Oladipo, Lagos
The immediate past President Goodluck Jonathan has debunked an online report suggesting that he will be re=contesting the office in 2019.
The online reports had suggested that he spoke about 2019 elections during a meeting with his kinsmen in Otuoke, Bayelsa State.
Pointedly, the reports had quoted him as having said that he was under due pressure to re contest the 2019 general election.
A statement issued by his media aide, Mr.Ikechukwu Eze, dismissed the claim, stressing that the former President was neither in his home state on the stated date nor met with his “kinsmen who paid him an end of year visit” as claimed in the report.
“Our attention has just been drawn to a fabricated online publication alleging that the former President Goodluck Jonathan made comments on the 2019 elections, while hosting his kinsmen in Otuoke last Tuesday.
“Those reports are false and bear no truth whatsoever. The former President was not in Otuoke on Tuesday, neither did he make the comments attributed to him. In fact, he has only just returned to his community to spend Christmas having been away for two weeks. So he could not have been hosting anyone there last Tuesday.
“Of what good is it to our national development efforts if some people spend so much energy spreading falsehood about fellow citizens and our nation?